I've been quite blocked today (apologies) so I'd like to turn the time over to you for an open discussion. With news coming that Channing Tatum would love to play Gambit in a movie (poor Taylor Kitsch. It's not his fault everyone has tried to scrub X-Men Origins: Wolverine from their memory) Fox will surely be jumping all over that to make it happen.

Though the superhero movie boom will surely die out as all movie trends do eventually, we have no idea how long it will last so we'll just try to enjoy it while it does rather than bristle against it.

The other day on Facebook Stan Lee posted a 'name your five favorite superheroes' thread and I answered more quickly than I knew I could. Without thinking about it five names popped right into mind: Nightcrawler, The Human Torch, Storm, Spider-Man, and The Scarlet Witch. Other than Sam Raimi's perfect Spider-Man 2 I haven't had much luck getting my favorite characters translated to my taste on the screen though, so I've tended to enjoy characters I didn't much at all care for in the comics the most onscreen. Like Captain America. Speaking of... my eyes bugged out seeing a brief glimpse of The Scarlet Witch in that film and I'll be curious to see how Joss Whedon and Elizabeth Olsen dramatize her in The Avengers: Age of Ulton. But still, I hate those post-movie tags which are the heighth of pandering narrative inelegance. They're very much like "next week on..." TV tags

But I'm curious. Name your five favorite superheroes in the comments. I perused through some answers on Facebook and was surprised to see that very few people chose heroes beyond the truly iconic household name ones - batman, superman, spider-man, and wolverine were constantly name-checked.

Reader Comments (30)

Jean Grey. The Dark Phoenix Saga is one of the most incredible stories in any medium. I will never forgive Fox and Brett Ratner for X-Men: The Last Stand. Jean (and Famke Janssen) deserved better.

Iceman, Human Torch, Spider-Man - the three heroes I most wanted to be growing up. As a small kid who got teased a lot, Peter Parker's story always resonated with me, and his wisecracking web-slinging later ego was a great escapist fantasy. Iceman and Human Torch had similar personalities (with the way they used humor) and even cooler powers.

Batman. Benefits hugely from his rogues gallery, but an incredible backstory and consistently great writing in the comics puts him on my list. His stories are always more grounded in reality than most other superheroes, which is something I appreciated more as I got older. Awesome cross-media adaptations like the animated series, The Dark Knight and Batman: Arkham City just keep reminding me why Batman is an icon.

3. Storm: Great origin story, great writing. She is the character that has been failed the most in the comic book to film adaptation process. Writing, casting...this character has been short-changed in nearly every way on film.

4. Northstar: Probably a biased citation because he's both queer and Canadian, but I love this character. And I think he's the first to marry a man in the Marvel Universe.

5. Colossus: Protective, yet gentle. A giant block of titanium with a beating heart. The ultimate fantasy. Like Storm, totally disposable in the film universe. Maybe next time will be better?

Jean Grey/Phoenix - Out of all the heroes, she's the one whose powers i'd love to have. Plus, The Dark Phoenix Saga is one of the greatest story arcs to ever be published. Totally agree with Jonny about the story and Famke deserving better.

Emma Frost/White Queen - She's an ice cold glamorous bitch who usually has a pathetic excuse for a costume. She's everything.

Gambit - Cajun Swagger! Who doesn't want to be him?

Batman - Just an ordinary man who holds his own among gods. But I like him more because he has such a great roster of villains.

Human Torch-I had such a crush on him growing up, and just-Johnny Storm was my first fake boyfriend.

Rogue-She was completely awesome, had the most powerful of powers, and was genuinely charming. Plus, her flirting with Gambit-bliss.

Jean Grey-I mean, come on-strong female character that totally dominated the most interesting of the X-Men storylines. Impossible not to love.

The Watcher-Completely powerful, mysterious, and always on the edges (the What If comics were my favorite).

Banshee-My mom got me into comic books, and he was one of her favorites so I guess that translated. Plus, again, one of the more unique powers.

Also, I feel like I need to point out that the villains of the comic book universe (Magneto and the Joker especially) were probably the best part so they would have made the list if it weren't just superheroes.

Jean Grey/ Phoenix/ Dark Phoenix/ Black Queen . The level 5 mutant is the strongest there is and oh so sexy. Phoenix has used her power to delete my memory of the existence of that horrible X-Men The Last Stand hurray movie disaster

Superman/ Clark Kent. The phone booth changes and his nerdyness and krypton weakness

5? If I were to choose one, (please don't punch me for this), it would be the Nickelodeon genre riff Danny Phantom. (Always kind of had a thing for "good ghost" stories). The peak run is probably episodes 7-25. (A bit too juvenile before, but mostly not painful, and a bit too compressed after, likely caused by the looming threat of cancellation.)

The other four overall?

Pre New 52 Stephanie Brown (and they're turning her into the hyper-competent save everyone badass in Batman: Eternal. Ugh. Talk about missing the bleeping POINT. She's probably not even going to be the daughter of either of the clue-droppers this time.)DeadpoolSpider-ManHelen Parr

Limited just to characters who started in comics (because, yeah, I included a couple started in animation riffs in the first one)?

Pre New 52 Stephanie BrownDeadpoolSpider-ManBatman (The rogues gallery, the fact that he's bold/crazy enough to train kids and the history that said truth ultimately created. I've not really been (fully) satisfied with any of his film adaptations yet, but I AM forced to concede that Batman: The Animated Series and the Batman: Arkham game series are probably the best currently produced that I can be satisfied with in any context, sidekick light or not.)The Tick (His comics aren't nearly as known as his shows, but he did start in the comics, so let me have this one. Spoon!)

Volvagia, I've been waiting for you to weigh in! So glad to see Stephanie Brown make somebody's list. She's not on mine entirely because of this New 52 nonsense. (Same with Barbara Gordon. RIP, Oracle).

Interesting that 4/5 are women. Or maybe not surprising since that they were some of the only strong female characters I was regularly seeing on screen and in literature. As for Cyclops, I always had an affinity for because I empathised with the fact that everyone loved Wolverine, but Cyclops was always reliable, clean cut and did the right thing - but never go the right kudos for it. Also LASERS OUT OF EYES.

- Iron Man (but the pusillanimous Tony Stark of time ago in the comics... not the RobertDowneyJrish version)- Darkhawk (the coolest hero of the 90's)- Scarlet Witch (with a special mention to Quicksilver and the Vision)- Green Lantern (I have forgotten they did that film)- The Wasp (I am so angry they haven't included her in the Avengers films...)

1. Wonder Woman (in the George Perez years).2. Storm (in any of her incarnations).3. Beast (in the 90s animated series).4. The Justice League International, during the amazing Giffen/DeMatteis run, when it didn't feature any of the big names (well I guess Batman was there), but some oddball members, like the Blue Beetle, Black Canary and the Silver Sorceress.5. The Incredibles.

1. Nightcrawler2. Storm3. Spider-Man4. The Human Torch5. Green Lantern (marred by a hideous messy movie)6. The Scarlet Witch7. Daredevil (marred by a hatefully inept movie)8. Rogue (I like Paquin in the movies but it doesn't feel like Rogue to me at all regardless)9. Phoenix (the one Jean Grey incarnation I loved... but oh how i loved)10. Cyclops11. Iceman12. Cloak & Dagger13. Northstar14. Quicksilver15. Wonder Woman16. Angel17. The Wasp18. The Flash19. Invisible Woman20. anyone from The Legion of SuperHeroes or Teen Titans (we had a moment when i was very young)

...and i always considered Catwoman a villain which is why she isn't here.

I have to go with Phoenix, Storm, The White Queen, Professor X, and Magneto. Sexy superladies 4ever. Still mourning the non-casting of early-90s Julianne Moore, Angela Bassett, and Michelle Pfeiffer… it could've been glorious. Luckily they got Prof X and Magneto just right (twice).

I'm obviously an X-Men fiend; I had a major crush on comic book Magneto circa the revamped X-Men 1-3 (the early 90s), and I've always appreciated the sub subversive wonder of the leader of the whole X-universe being a bald cripple with a strong mind.

She gets the White Queen slot if the White Queen has to be considered a villain (the iteration I loved was certainly from the earlier, evil era). Otherwise I guess Rogue is a close 6th. Yeah Paquin definitely missed the mark, good performance or no. I'm not really sure what Singer was thinking there… I guess there was no other star particularly better suited to the role, and Paquin was perceived as having the chops for it.

Can´t believe not one has mentioned my favorite: Thor. Powerful and inmortal. What else could I ask? Then Gambit, the coolest of all. Like the kind of dude you wanna hang out with. And since I´ve been always fascinated by magic and such, Dr. Strange.Never found Spiderman appealing, don´t know why.

I always adored the Scarlet Witch, and really related to her as a kid. In the WASPY universe of the comics, in which the last names of the X-Men were Worthington, Summers, Grey, Pym, and Drake, along comes a Maximoff with dark, curly hair like mine. She was the coolest.

I was on board early with Wolverine, loving him since Chris Claremont's bringing him into the X-Men in 1975.